Just hours after 22-year-old gunman Jared Loughner launched a shooting spree at a Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) constituent event in Tucson on Saturday that left six dead and 14 wounded, Legislative District chairman Anthony Miller, a Republican, announced that he would resign his position. In an email to the state’s GOP chair, Miller cited “constant verbal attacks” after his election last year “and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family’s safety.” Many of his Republican colleagues followed him out the door.

Miller had gotten on the wrong side of the Tea Party by supporting John McCain’s most recent run for Senate against Tea Party favorite J.D. Hayworth. Miller, who is black, has said that he had been repeatedly threatened and referred to as “McCain’s boy.”

Miller wasn’t alone. Others have quit as well. This comes from the Arizona Republic:

The newly-elected Dist. 20 Republican secretary, Sophia Johnson of Ahwatukee, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson of Tempe and Jeff Kolb, the former district spokesman from Ahwatukee, also quit. “This singular focus on ‘getting’ Anthony (Miller) was one of the main reasons I chose to resign,” Kolb said in an e-mail to another party activist. Kolb confirmed the contents of the e-mail to the Republic.

Yes, I’m sure Loughner was responsible for all the threats of violence up until now. And, now that he’s locked up, the Arizona Tea Party will be a bastion of sanity where cool headed logic always prevails.

The threats have been there for a while. You’re assume that most of the Arizona Tea Party, which Lougner was not a part of, are just as mentally ill as he is. There are plenty of threats against the president, maybe he should resign too. How about fighting for a change in gun laws or as for government supplied security rather than run.

I can’t believe the republican party leadership has allowed this to happen to Mr. Miller (one of their own members) and has nothing to say (nothing that I’ve heard so far) or won’t do anything about it. The Arizona Tea Party has gotten way out of hand. What they have done is illegal and those members should be dealt with accordingly. This blatant tyranny should not be tolerated. They need to be taught that you will not threaten a person and his family with harm over politics (until they get their way) and get away with it. I repeat they must be dealt with accordingly. If they are not stopped hard now they’ll be emboldened and it will get much worse.

The AP reports that the Arizona shooting is leading to a wave of proposed legislation aiming to enhance, not curtail, gun rights:

The shooting in Tucson brought new attention to the national gun control debate after authorities said the rampage was carried out by a man who couldn’t get into the military because of his drug use and had repeated run-ins with police at his community college because of his bizarre mental behavior. Jared Loughner bought the 9 mm handgun legally at a Tucson gun store, and was also carrying extended magazines that hold 30 rounds of ammunition.

Arizona Republicans remain adamant that the shooting will not dissuade them from pushing their pro-gun agenda.

They want new laws allowing college and university faculty members to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus, an issue that gained attention after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech University. Only Utah has a law allowing concealed weapons on college campuses while 24 states have bans, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

What we need to do is distribute nuclear arms and chemical weapons to all Americans.

I’d really like to know how many people who preach about gun rights have ever seen someone get shot outside of a war situation.

This is going to seem weird. I’m a guy who spends a lot of time in front of a computer, so if this is out of place, forgive me. I’m a weird guy, I realize this.

Here’s my gun story:

I’ve seen three people shot (most likely dead) in my lifetime. Twice in New Orleans and once in Brooklyn, NY. You never forget it the sight of someone collapsing after being shot. It’s nothing like the movies. It’s not as loud, it’s quicker and not nearly as dramatic but all the more disturbing.

It happens quickly, with little warning and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

I’ve had guns pulled on me five times, twice by police officers.

I’ve lost two people to gun related suicides.

More than 10 times, I’ve been in the presence of a person showing off with a gun. While not explicitly threatening anyone, the obvious implication was “Don’t fuck with me because I can blow your brains out.” More often than not, they were drunk, high or wacked out on coke. The power dynamic in such a situation cannot be described as equitable nor sane.

I know plenty of responsible hunters and I have nothing against them. They are mostly good folk.

@Meta
Is it okay to like Jon Stewart again? I thought he was still on the liberals shit list.

@Peter
Well put. I’m sure there’s not many positive gun stories out there. One of the shooting on the “Yes, there have been a lot of shootings, but they haven’t been directed at you, so don’t worry about it” post was right by my house. Owning a gun is not going to stop that.

Sure, we can list all of the bad things that have happened in our lives because of guns, but how about all of the good things that have happened in our lives because of guns. I’d suggest that we’ve each been touched in a positive way by gun violence. Take for instance me, and how I wasn’t raped and murdered by a home intruder because, six years previously, he’d been shot to death by an angry ex-lover. Or, what about the fact that I wouldn’t have been here in the first place if my grandfather hadn’t shot that German kid who was coming at him with a knife in France? Each of us is probably here because gun violence. Guns are a blessing.

Peter, what were you doing there each of those 3 times you witnessed a shooting?

What were you doing there each of those 5 times you’ve had guns pulled on you?

What were you doing there each of the 10 times you’ve been in the presence of reckless handling of firearms by irresponsible people?

Why are you so often in the presence of people whacked out on drugs?

What, if anything, did you do to help your suicidal (and armed) friends before they shot themselves to death?

I don’t assume you are on drugs, but it is very clear you make poor decisions in regard to your associations. Your opinions on gun ownership are that much less valid in my opinion, in the same way I wouldn’t give much credibility to the opinions of a drug addict regarding drug policy. We might want to take a more representative sample of reality upon which to base our collective decisions as a society.

Woah, man, you know not of what you speak. I really don’t feel the need to give you a laundry list of all the situations you list above.

I can, however, point out that my experiences aren’t all that uncommon in poor America. While I may have had more experience than most, there’s lots that goes on outside suburban America than you may realize nor care about.

You disappoint me, Robert, I thought you were better than this, but I guess I was wrong.

Robert, though, I must address the suicides. Both were cases of mental illness and were both wonderful people before I reared it’s ugly head. I miss then and must call you an ass for implying that somehow what I, or anyone else did was not enough.

No, Olivia, I was not trying to be funny. And really everybody, how many times do I have to state it here that I am not generally considered a nice person, and that I don’t share your sensitivities. The questions I asked were not any different than an attorney might ask on cross examination. Don’t be so sensitive, any of you. I don’t feel any need to pamper any one of you.

I don’t deny being a insensitive asshole. But if you are hanging around with drug addicts who brandish firearms and you have had police officers feel the need to point their weapons at you more than once it is likely that YOU are the bigger asshole between the two of us.

So while you may feel the need to say “fuck you” to so many things including other people’s constitutional rights, than I say fuck your stupid opinions and the arrogant smugness with which you so often choose to deliver them.

I admire Mark’s skin, thick-thin combo, seems like, a resilient kind that seems to let him be vulnerable and impervious at the same time, a writing voice that expresses good cheer and deep concern and bewilderment and hilarity. Don’t know for sure, but he manages to keep going with this blog, despite the bullies and bleeding hearts and all the other variations. But calling someone’s willingness to show vulnerability “too sensitive” or name-call about smugness, when it’s probably just a way a person thinks, feels, talks, or call one’s own self names in order to do the same to others–I don’t get this whole part of life, including the blogging life. But it’s a part. Hope mutual respect, appreciation of individual differences, kindness, a willingness to imagine others’ experiences, what’s inside them, these and other tolerant qualities–hoping these human possibilities gain greater sway, and quickly, and leave more of us at home and at peace in one another’s company, rather than the easy power to belittle. Really I do. Call it arrogant smugness, sensitivity, anything at all. But it’s the good stuff, to me. And to many people I know and admire, thankfully.

Yeah, right, Peter. Let’s hear about the circumstances then we’ll see if I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s pretty clear you don’t want to share those details and I am certain it isn’t because you give a shit what I think.

Maybe Edward or Oliva can enlighten me. I’m curious to hear how the list you gave doesn’t almost certainly suggest bad decision making. Did all these incidents occur when you were too young to make decisions about where you were and with whom you were associating?

I have never been raped, nor will I seek to imagine what a victim of rape goes through.

However, I think that you’re priorities are skewed here. You claim that witnessing and being victimized by violence is somehow the fault of the choices of the victim? I don’t get it.

My friends’ suicides are somehow the fault of everyone around them? because they didn’t do enough? Seriously, man. How about the fact that they were able to legally obtain guns and kill themselves within days?

Violence is violence. Witnessing someone being killed is no fun. You can claim that by walking or driving down the street I am somehow to blame, but that doesn’t erase the fact that these things are happening every single day. My choosing to be on that street or not doesn’t bring those three people back to life.

As for gun pointing, again, if walking down the street completely sober is a crime, then police were justified with gun pointing. I certainly never asked to have drug-addled street kids point guns at me.

Nor do I think it was my decision to live with family members that routinely waved guns around.

Truthfully, yes, all these things were traumatic to the point where even the sight of a gun will raise my blood pressure. I think that trumps Constitutional ambiguities and yes, does influence my political opinions.

I am envious that you have never been witness to violence, assuming that is the case.

If you are so worried about it, I do not have an arrest record. Admittedly, I come from a place full of problems. I have spent more than my fair share of time in poor neighborhoods, trailer parks and ghettos, but not to buy drugs.

I am not your friend. I don’t even know you. So you don’t have to worry about me blowing smoke up your ass to make myself feel like I’m a good person. Unlike many liberal-types, I am aware of the fact that enabling and inaction are also destructive behaviors, and not the product of true compassion or a thoughtful strategy.

As I am also a person who has made a lot of bad decisions and gotten into plenty of trouble in my life, so I wasn’t simply attacking you on your apparent propensity to do the same thing or something similar. I was actually trying to provoke you into openly discussing some pretty fucked up shit regarding which you obviously haven’t been completely honest with yourself. I don’t think it’s bad to fuck up so much as it is bad to deny that it happened.

For the record, I actually give a shit about the people I call my friends and I don’t feel any need to ease my guilt about those times when I know I have failed them. I feel like addressing those problems and being a better friend from it if possible.

I don’t know where you are in your life presently, but I hope you are in a better place than apparently you have been at others times. I mean that sincerely. You are clearly an intelligent and articulate person who has much to offer the people and world around you. I hope you take the responsibility that goes along with that seriously.

By the way, I don’t believe for a second that you come from a tough urban environment, so your references to suburban la-la land only made me think you might be from some rural place. Still, my bet is that you grew up primarily in the suburbs. Please, feel free to put me in my place regarding any of this. You don’t have to worry about hurting my tender little emotions.